When I sat down at the kitchen table this morning there before me was a pan of freshly caught rats complete with all their furry coats and long tails inviting a repulsive gesture on my part. It all took place in the small village of Bangta-ngai in Banphot Phisai in the province of Nakhon Sawan central Thailand, where I live with my wife Na, and the three children Dow, Dune and Gada. Coming from San Francisco and having been weaned on Western European cuisine, with a good bit of the mixed cultural cuisine called California cuisine, I was very unprepared on how to react to these rats on the table directly in front of me. But there they were, big brown furry rats just lying there awaiting to be prepared for a delicacy, which this Thai family truly enjoys. It could be barbecue rat, or rats cooked in oil or even chopped rat with chili paste all of which were considerations for a sumptuous meal of rat.

The evening came and rat was served for dinner. It actually
smelled fairly good so I broke off a piece with my fingers, and
began chewing barbecued rat that had a very distinctive hot spicy
flavor. I suppose for the squeamish of heart that would be just
about enough to make you want to run to the nearest toilet and
have a good heave, especially in any American home I have ever
been to. I must admit, however, I was astonished at how good
the rat meat actually tasted. The cultural hurtle that I had
to jump over to gain the social grace to eating rat meat was
truly monumental with a severe sense of obligation at being polite
in front of the family at the dinner table. Swallowing your pride
took on a whole new different meaning for me as I swallowed my
first bite of rat meat.

So dramatic was this experience for me, I thought I would like
to tell my story of how I came to gain the confidence to eat
my first prepared meal of Thai rat.

Early one morning in the village, quite some time before I ever
considered eating a rat or any other rodent for that matter,
Moat, Na's older brother came to the house with a small hand
made bamboo cage containing a small rodent which I came to learn
was a freshly caught rat. At first I thought the rat was going
to be kept as a pet, but soon learned that the rat was going
to be fattened up and then prepared for a special meal. Moat
told me that rat meat was a very special Thai delicacy, and that
rat meat was a taste treat in Thailand. I pondered his comment
as I looked at the rat, and could not help remember all the rats
I used to see at the Le Halle market in Paris in the early morning
of 1974, or the rats in the subways of lower Manhattan. Rats,
the worst mammal alive I thought. The mammal that eats the garbage
of humanity, survives extremely well, and adapts better than
most living creatures. So, my idea of dining on rat really did
not appeal to me at all.

I had forgotten about Moat's rat in the bamboo cage until that
eventful morning when I saw all those rats in a pail in the kitchen.
At first it was a repulsive experience, but with such an obvious
display of acceptance by the family with leaving them laid out
like a fresh fish kill I decided to be a bit more attentive to
these furry dead beats. It was mid January, and the rice fields
had about two months to go before harvest. If the rice fields
are not tended to properly the rats will eat the roots of the
rice plant. The young tender roots of the rice plants are what
the rats like to eat. Rice field rats have quite another diet
over their urban cousins. Rice field rats love to dine on rice
roots.

I became aware of Moat busily working on some bamboo and string,
and my father-in-law was also busy burning holes in the thicker
sections of bamboo strips using a red hot poker iron. Slowly
I figured out that the both of them were making rat traps for
the rice fields. I had never seen a bamboo rat trap in my life
so I was again intrigued over the sheer ingenuity as well as
the determined sustainable lifestyle the Thais have developed
around their rice fields which yield far more of a food supply
than just the rice. The canals, which irrigate the fields, are
full of fish and snails. After the fields have been harvested
and burned the ducks come to feed on the fresh grass shoots and
lay their eggs. There are a number of species of plant life that
is also picked for garnish as well as boiled with other vegetables
in soups or mixed with red chili peppers using a mortar and pestle.
One is never to underestimate the bounty in a rice field.

To say that these rat traps had a hair trigger would not even
come close to the real sensitivity of the traps release mechanism.
Carefully set on the trap was a small piece of bamboo, very delicately
pressed against the main bamboo bar ready to spring shut as the
trap was designed very much like a bow. All the rat had to do
was just brush against the small piece of bamboo and the bow
would spring open pulling the bamboo bar shut. When the rats
scampered through the furrows of the rice fields they would very
unknowingly, and without any bait to lure them, would run right
through the opening of the traps, which were cleverly placed
in between the rice stalks. Before the rat ever had a chance
to know what was happening it would be too late as the bamboo
bar would have instantly come down on his neck. It was very quick,
and it was done in the dark of night when the rats could not
see the traps. In the morning the traps would all be shut tight,
and a full sack of freshly caught rice field rats would be ready
for cleaning.

The cleaning and preparation for cooking the rat is also quite
a process. The small feet and tail are first cut off on a wood
chopping block. Then a cut is made behind the ear so that it
is possible to pull the fur off of the main body. After that
is done the head is cut off as the head is held onto when pulling
the fur off of the body.
The rat is then washed in water and a cut is made along its belly
to remove all the intestines. The liver and the heart are kept
inside the body.

The rat is then spread open and placed either between a grate
for cooking over an open flame and the smaller rats are ready
for the wood chopping black. The smaller rats are left on the
grill just long enough for the meat to be cooked, but still medium
rare.
Then the small rats are chopped up very finely on the chopping
block, small bones and all, until a sort of fine ground meat
is made into a paste.
The heart and liver are removed before it is chopped up and placed
in a separate dish.

Before the rats are prepared for cooking, about two small cups
of red chili peppers are ground up with a mortar and pestle until
a red chili paste is made. It is this chili paste that the finely
chopped rat meat is added and then cooked in oil in a wok. A
great deal of garnish and other spices are added which are mentioned
in the recipe at the end of this short story. The larger rats
were completely fried with a burnt like look to them as they
were also basted with a chili sauce. Once at the dinner table
I had to keep in mind I was going to eat a Thai delicacy so my
first bite was accompanied by a strange feeling that I was not
going to like this delicacy at all. Once the rat meat was in
my mouth I began to chew. I was looking for a taste familiar
to me so I could not show any signs of rejecting my 1st Thai
delicacy. The first taste I experienced was the very distinctive
hot chili flavor, which was a welcomed friend to my taste buds,
but I knew the rate meat was about to make its appearance on
my tongue.

The meat was very tender and not at all wild game
tasting. In fact the meat was very sweet, very much like rabbit
meat or frog legs. I was satisfied I could continue eating my
first piece of rat meat, and went about picking every last piece
of meat off of the small bones.

I decided not to eat any more rat meat at my first sitting,
and was even told I would find out later that I would not be
able to digest it. Some of my Thai family friends said it was
only a joke, and there were no problems to worry about. I really
did not know what to expect, but the evening passed and I survived
the night with a quiet sleep with no sudden trips to the toilet.

It amazes me how we all grow accustomed to food from cultures
we are familiar with and how uncertain we feel when approached
with a new cultural taste treat. The integration of world cultures
definitely could begin with a totally new dining experience.
If we can ever over come those differences, perhaps our global
differences on larger issues would be more easily resolved.

These World Wide Web pages are provided as a public service and are intended as entertainment only. The information and materials presented on these pages is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. content on this domain does not express the views of whipnet or it's entities.